A New Address
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Belgrave Square
World War Two proved a gulf much deeper both in political and historical terms than World War One. Then, Britain survived as a victor nation, Germany soon got over economic ruin, revolution and the constitutional change from Imperial to Republican status. But in 1945 Britain was totally exhausted from its war efforts and the old Germany had practically ceased to exist. In London as in other foreign capitals the future Federal Republic of Germany had to start from scratch. The 90-year lease of the Prussian Legation, taken out in March 1849 by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV and his London envoy and later Ambassador Count Albrecht von Bernstorff, had expired. The building, requisitioned as enemy property, was no longer available.
Whether it would have served the purpose of a modern Embassy without extensive enlargement is doubtful. Generations of the old German Embassy staff, accommodated as all of them were in the "basement" on the level of the Mall, complained about their cramped, unhealthy, dingy working conditions, magnificent though the location was in the very heart of London and in the triangle of the royal palaces, St. James's Park and Westminster. There was also something to be said for discarding tradition when it becomes too much of a burden. So the representatives of the new Federal Republic made a virtue of necessity. They looked for a new site and found it in Belgrave Square which, since the War, has become a new London centre of foreign embassies.
